Madam President, in response to the comments of my colleague from Delaware, I do not think anybody is denigrating the quality of Federal employees. To the contrary. We are all Federal employees. We all know Federal employees. We are all…

Madam President, this amendment is, in my view, probably the most important thing that we can do for the economy right now. The Senator from Montana talked about job creation. Everybody in this Chamber cares about that. I think Democrats…

Madam President, pursuant to section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and section 4(G)(3) of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, I move to waive all applicable sections of those acts and applicable budget resolutions for…

Madam President, as provided for in the order, I now call up my amendment. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report. The bill clerk read as follows: The Senator from South Dakota [Mr. Thune] proposes an amendment numbered…

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered. (The amendment is printed in today's Record under ``Text of Amendments.'')

Madam President, I simply offer that modification to my amendment to address the concern that every single Federal employee is going to be capped at some level for some foreseeable period of time. That is not the intention. In fact, what…

I think this is an important discussion to have not only with respect to the merger in front of us...

There are many of us who are very concerned about the future of the industry, the impacts of this merger...

if the same number of people want to travel, but there are less options available, all else equal, prices would rise.

I have witnessed first-hand the changes that have occurred as a result of the Northwest/Delta merger...

I would be very concerned about endangering the triad if the number of strategic delivery vehicles dropped below the 800 number.

I believe it is critically important to our security and that of our allies that the United States maintain a deterrent based on a modernized Triad of SLBMs/SSBNs, ICBMs, and bombers.

At relatively low launcher numbers, Russia will take advantage of New START's lack of restrictions on MIRVing and MIRVed payloads.

Thirty more years is a long time for a bomber that was built 50 years ago.

I believe it is critically important that the United States maintain a modern and effective ICBM force.

Mr. Miller and Dr. Payne, with the New START's limitations going into effect within 7 years, at what point do we need to begin making the changes necessary to comply with this treaty?

I believe that the Russian strategic force under New START will be ICBM-heavy, with many of those ICBMs MIRVed.

Thank you very much for providing your insights and responding to some of the questions that many of us have on this very important subject.